Poll: The Wolf Among Us - Why is it good?
- Thread starter Auron225
- Start date
It's good, but it has two major flaws. The first is that it kind of sets you up thinking you are going to play a detective game, when in fact you are taking part in a thriller story with a detective investigation in it. You do get to do detectivy things (interviewing suspects, searching for clues etc), but the story will do what most Telltale games do and lead you down a single set of rails towards one major conclusion and one main culprit, whether you figure out the case yourself or don't.
It's other problem is that there is a bit of a mismatch between how the setting is supposed to work, and your role in the story. In the first scene, you (as the town sheriff) try to break up a fight. It goes south and the game prompts you to smash someone over the head with a huge axe - as a player, you might think this would count as a bit on the excessive side and refuse to do it, only to then receive an instant game over. If you do resort to police brutality, you discover that in this game, an axe through the brain isn't necessarily lethal at all. But then later still in the game, you see characters killed by comparatively trivial wounds. And also despite being a sheriff, you often get no option to arrest the people who keep trying to murder you, when logically that should be the first thing you would do once you've beaten them into submission.
I liked the characters and the thriller plot, but there is a lot of these incongruities that make it a little more confusing than it should be.
It's other problem is that there is a bit of a mismatch between how the setting is supposed to work, and your role in the story. In the first scene, you (as the town sheriff) try to break up a fight. It goes south and the game prompts you to smash someone over the head with a huge axe - as a player, you might think this would count as a bit on the excessive side and refuse to do it, only to then receive an instant game over. If you do resort to police brutality, you discover that in this game, an axe through the brain isn't necessarily lethal at all. But then later still in the game, you see characters killed by comparatively trivial wounds. And also despite being a sheriff, you often get no option to arrest the people who keep trying to murder you, when logically that should be the first thing you would do once you've beaten them into submission.
I liked the characters and the thriller plot, but there is a lot of these incongruities that make it a little more confusing than it should be.
Actually this is explained in the game as well as within the setting itself: The more popular or 'well known' a fables tale is the more powerful, and durable, they tend to be. Although how tough they are in the fable itself also plays a role obviously. Bigby is basically a household name as the Big Bad Wolf and as such is pretty damned hard to kill, same with some others like Bloody Mary or The Beast, and presumably The Beauty as well but then she never really fights anyone. More obscure characters however are far weaker, that's where you get your donkey ladies and minor local ghoulies, which are still tougher than your typical human but not by much.maninahat said:
Good to see these off the cuff reviews of the game. I have read quite a bit of the Fable's comic series and actually really love it. I would have to acknowledge that Bigby is a wolverinish bad ass in the comics, but not quite a carbon copy. I highly recommend the comics series. The events of the game are supposed to be a sort of prequel to the comics from what I understand. I may have to pick it up.
The fact that I read all TWD comics and watched the entire series at the time the TellTale game came out would suggest that I would be into that more. However, even though I didn't read any Wolf Among Us, I found that game and universe to be much more gripping and the characters more interesting. It definitely sucked me in more to the story, but maybe that's because of the premise of each game:
-I think maybe I was a bit tired of zombies at the time I played TWD? It is still quite raw and harsh reality-based gaming but the whole zombie scenario was getting a bit tired at that point. Amongst all the other TWD media I'd also been playing Dead Island, Left 4 Dead, and some survival games....
-Wolf Among Us is colorful in it's art style and universe, Bigby is as multi-dimensional as you want to play him, you are always wondering about which angle you want to lean without pushing the envelope too far. I guess the fact that there isn't a real "fail-state" kind of diffuses that, but in any case I was always looking forward to the next episode to see what would unfold.
-I think maybe I was a bit tired of zombies at the time I played TWD? It is still quite raw and harsh reality-based gaming but the whole zombie scenario was getting a bit tired at that point. Amongst all the other TWD media I'd also been playing Dead Island, Left 4 Dead, and some survival games....
-Wolf Among Us is colorful in it's art style and universe, Bigby is as multi-dimensional as you want to play him, you are always wondering about which angle you want to lean without pushing the envelope too far. I guess the fact that there isn't a real "fail-state" kind of diffuses that, but in any case I was always looking forward to the next episode to see what would unfold.
I'm definitely in the preferred The Wolf Among Us to The Walking Dead camp.
I'll get the good stuff in favor of Wolf Among us out of the way first:
- I really liked the characters
- the setting was unique and intriguing
- the action scenes - while still the qte's you know and love/hate from TWD - are actually entertaining, at least visually
- ambient music was usually very good
- left me wanting more (in a good way)
The one thing that bugged me about it (but didn't ruin the experience) was that on a *few* occasions, I took the good/nice option, but the game seemed to act on the assumption that you took the other option. It didn't happen often, but it seemed mostly to be in scenes with Snow White. Kind of annoying, since I was trying to stay friendly with her.
*Disclaimer* The next part is just a little bit of ranting about The Walking Dead show and game, and can be safely ignored if you only wanted to know about The Wolf Among Us.
The twenty foot elephant in the room for me while playing The Walking Dead is a little voice in my head quietly asking, why should I care? Seriously. Nothing I do in that game matters at all. Everything just always gets worse. And as the people associated with the development of the story for both TV and games have stated they don't have a 'reveal' for the cause of the zombies, or any plans for a resolution, I just can't get invested. There's no payoff in sight. I know, I know, 'it's the journey, not the destination' but these games and the show don't feel like a journey. They just feel like a meandering excuse for prolonged drama, and I don't find that appealing.
/rant
PS I'm planning to play through the Game of Thrones telltale game, as I received it on steam as a gift. Any opinions on that game compared to the other two telltale games?
I'll get the good stuff in favor of Wolf Among us out of the way first:
- I really liked the characters
- the setting was unique and intriguing
- the action scenes - while still the qte's you know and love/hate from TWD - are actually entertaining, at least visually
- ambient music was usually very good
- left me wanting more (in a good way)
The one thing that bugged me about it (but didn't ruin the experience) was that on a *few* occasions, I took the good/nice option, but the game seemed to act on the assumption that you took the other option. It didn't happen often, but it seemed mostly to be in scenes with Snow White. Kind of annoying, since I was trying to stay friendly with her.
*Disclaimer* The next part is just a little bit of ranting about The Walking Dead show and game, and can be safely ignored if you only wanted to know about The Wolf Among Us.
The twenty foot elephant in the room for me while playing The Walking Dead is a little voice in my head quietly asking, why should I care? Seriously. Nothing I do in that game matters at all. Everything just always gets worse. And as the people associated with the development of the story for both TV and games have stated they don't have a 'reveal' for the cause of the zombies, or any plans for a resolution, I just can't get invested. There's no payoff in sight. I know, I know, 'it's the journey, not the destination' but these games and the show don't feel like a journey. They just feel like a meandering excuse for prolonged drama, and I don't find that appealing.
/rant
PS I'm planning to play through the Game of Thrones telltale game, as I received it on steam as a gift. Any opinions on that game compared to the other two telltale games?